Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Inside SQL Server 2005 is a work in four volumes, for which I am the series editor.

When I started planning the update to Inside SQL Server 2000, I knew that one volume would not be enough, and I asked Itzik Ben-Gan if he would be willing to write a separate volume focusing solely on the Transact-SQL language. I would write a volume that would cover aspects of the product not directly related to the language, namely, the storage engine and the query processor, as well as tuning and optimization issues. As we both proceeded with our plans, we both realized that one volume would not be enough for either of us.

So two of the volumes deal exclusively with the Transact-SQL language. Although Itzik Ben-Gan is the primary author of those volumes, he has an impressive contingent of co-authors. Inside SQL Server 2005: TSQL Querying and Inside SQL Server 2005: TSQL Programming were both published in the first half of 2006. You can contact Itzik at his web site, www.insidetsql.com, for more information about the TSQL volumes.

Inside SQL Server 2005: The Storage Engine was written by me, and was published in October 2006. It covers engine architecture, metadata, database and file structures, the transaction log, table storage, index storage, locking and concurrency.

The fourth volume Inside SQL Server 2005: Query Tuning and Optimization, was released in September 2007. This volume was not a solo effort, but has chapters written by Sunil Agarwal and Craig Freedman of the SQL Server product team at Microsoft, and well as chapters by two of my colleagues: Adam Machanic and Ron Talmage.

None of the volumes of Inside SQL Server 2005 are intended to be beginner level books. For recommended prerequisite reading, check my reading list.

Once you feel you have a solid grasp of the basics of SQL Server, Inside SQL Server 2005 can give you advanced details that you just can't find anywhere else.

I'm always happy to receive comments or questions about my writing.

If you have general questions, not directly related to my writings, there are public forums where you can get information or assistance. If you have newsreader software, such as Outlook Express, you can point to the Microsoft news server at msnews.microsoft.com and search for (and subscribe to) forums that have sqlserver in their name. I have been designated an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) by Microsoft for my contributions to these sqlserver forums, so you may well end up getting an answer from me. However, there are dozens of wonderful, talented, generous people who might also answer your questions. Plus there is lots of terrific information to be obtained by reading other people's questions and the answers they receive.

To see answers to questions that others have asked about my writings, you can check out my blog, where I will elaborate on topics covered in my books, and write about new topics or tidbits that I haven't covered.